40
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of finding
The researcher what have been conducted is to review and summary in this chapter. It included
summary, finding, conclusion and recommendations.
According to the survey questionnaires results, civil society leaders in Rakhine state, western
Myanmar have been practicing all three styles; Authoritarian leadership style, Participative
leadership style and Delegative leadership style.
Many leaders are encouragingly delegative and participative. However, many participants from
focus group discussions had different opinions. They feel that most leaders are authoritarian and
more comfortable with top-down style. When the political landscape of the country is in
transition to the democracy, civil society leaders should have more democratic practices to be
able to contribute for nation building. The leaders should reflect the needs of the people while
trying to accomplish their organization’s missions, target, and three objectives.
Three objectives of this study are as follow:
1. To investigate the leaders’ demographic factors such as gender, age, education, and
position in Rakhine state, western Myanmar.
2. To explore different leadership styles that is being practiced in the civil societies of
Rakhine state, western Myanmar.
3. To realize positive and negative impacts of their leadership styles in current civil
societies of Rakhine state, western Myanmar.
First and the foremost, the leaders should be aware of their own leadership style
understanding strengths and weaknesses. Only then, they can improve their leadership style.
There are six attributes of a good leader according to Myanmar Standard. A leader must be: 1)
proactive and initiative, 2) alert 3) empathetic 4) patient 5) reasonable and considerate and 6)
visionary.
5.1.1 Finding
Among 35 civil society organizations which researcher studied their profiles, 15% was faithbased organizations and 60% is Non-Governmental Organizations while the rest 25% is
Community Based Organizations.
41
1. For objective one, each factor of leaders’ demographic factors; gender, age, education
and position was identified through data collection was done. All total leaders were 75
persons from 35 civil societies in Rakhine state, western Myanmar.
1.1.Gender: 94.6 % leaders were males leading their civil societies and 6.4 % leader were
females in civil societies of Rakhine state, Myanmar.
1.2.Age: More than half (About 56%) of the board members are within the age of 25 to 55
and elderly persons are always considered to give higher positions in the board in line
with Rakhine culture that 15.6% of the board members were above 20 years old, 65.3%
of the board members were above 30 years old, 44.8% of the board member were above
40 years old, and 11.3% the board members were above 50 years old.
1.3.Education: 18% of leaders in civil societies of Rakhine state, western Myanmar are
higher education level, 46% of leaders in civil societies are Bachelor degree graduates,
very few leaders are master and Ph.D. as well as Dhammacariya degree holders. And
12% of leaders are others.
1.4.Working experience: most leaders have been working in their organizations for one to
five years whilst some leaders have been in the organizations for more than 10 years and
some have worked for 36 years with strong commitments.
5.1.2 Research objective two:
Research objective two was to realize what leadership style has been practiced in civil societies
of Rakhine state, western Myanmar. This part of leadership style assessment is the survey
questionnaires to choose among three different leadership styles; Authoritarian style,
Democratic style and Delegative style.
Authoritarian or Autocratic leadership style was showed 9% percentage out of 100% percentage,
democratic leadership style was showed 72% percentage and delegative leadership style was
used 19% percentage according to survey questionnaires.
5.1.3 Research objective two
The researcher in Rakhine state, western Myanmar found three types of civil societies such as; 1)
modern civil society, 2) traditional civil society, and 3) co-cop society. 28% percentages of civil
societies in Rakhine state have been practicing modern civil society style, 52% percentages are
traditional civil society, and 20% percentages are co-cop society.
Leaders in modern civil societies believe that democratic leadership style has good impact on
their societies rather than other two leadership styles. Leaders in traditional civil societies believe
that autocratic leadership style is useful in civil societies. And leaders in co-cop societies believe
that autocratic and delegative leadership styles more effect on civil societies. As people in liberal
societies feel satisfy in freedom, most leaders prefer to democratic and delegative leadership
styles which enable to gain objectives and the goal of society.
42
5.2 Conclusion
The researcher made conclusion through data analysis of what were founded by survey
questionnaires, interview, and group discussion with civil societies’ leaders in Rakhine state,
western Myanmar.
From 35 civil societies, 75 leaders were investigated to realize demographics such as gender,
age, education background, and position, leadership styles such as democratic leadership style,
autocratic leadership style, and delegative leadership style, and its positive impact and negative
impact on societies in Rakhine state, western Myanmar.
In the demographic factors, the researcher finds that male leaders were more than female leaders.
Their age was between 30 and 40 year old, in education most of leaders were diploma and BA.
In three leadership styles, democratic leadership style more prefers then other two styles.
Autocratic leadership was less belief. Some believe in deligative leadership style which is
workable to develop society.
Mostly positive impacts on society came from practicing democratic leadership style and
delegative leadership style and negative impacts from being practiced autocratic leadership style
in current situation of Myanmar democratization process.
To realize characteristics of leaders who have whether high test or hight relationship in civil
society, Authoritarian Leaders (high task, low relationship) are usually task oriented and
hard on their workers (being autocratic). They have little or no allowance for cooperation or
collaboration and are very strong on schedules. Such leaders expect people to do what they are
told without allowing question or debate and focus on blame rather than how to prevent
it. They are intolerant of disagreement and thus, difficult for their subordinates to contribute or
develop.
Nevertheless, Country Club Leaders (low task, high relationship), use reward power to
maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. They are normally
incapable of employing more punitive, coercive and legitimate power and fear that it will
jeopardize relationships.
On the other hand, Impoverished Leader (low task, low relationship) or “Delegate and
Disappear” style leader allows the team to do whatever it wishes and detaches themselves
from the organization and the team.
In contrary, the Team Leader (high task, high relationship), leads as a positive example. They
will foster a team environment, encourage the team to reach team goals, and work
tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members. Such leaders can form and
lead most productive teams.
43
The results of the study are indeed very encouraging and positive. It appears that the “Leaders”
in Rakhine Civil Society fits the desired profile of being both Democratic and Participative as
well as being Team Leader.
5.3 Recommendation
According to these attributes, a leader needs to be proactive and initiative. She or he must be able
to foresee the situation and needs to be prepared in advance. She or he must understand both
internal and external environments and must be alert. The leader needs to be sympathetic and
empathetic. She or he must have ability to wear the shoes of others. She or he also must be
patient enough to learn the mistakes. The leader also needs to be reasonable and analytical. The
leader is necessary to be farsighted and have clear vision for the organization. All above
mentioned attributes reflect all good leadership styles mentioned in theory and Rakhine civil
society leaders should try their best to practice all these attributes to gain respect and trust of
their team as well as their beneficiaries, i.e. the communities. An experienced consultant who has
been working with many local organizations on leadership issues mentioned that there were four
different types of organizations. These are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
An organization formed with unskilled leader and unskilled followers
An organization with unskilled leader and skilled followers
An organization with skilled leader and unskilled followers and
An organization with skilled leader and skilled followers.
The consultant thinks that most CSOs in Rakhine civil society are mainly under the second and
third types. The first and last types are rarely seen in Rakhine state, western myanmar. The third
organizational type can easily be transformed into the fourth type since there can be some skilled
followers in the team.
Top-down leadership style is very common in Rakhine civil society according to the group
discussion, interview and survey questionnaires results. Such leaders have their own groups and
can be seen in government departments, CSOs, and UN organizations. Clientelism is common
and strong in many organizations. The leaders have the followers and they will give special
favors and protect them. The leader trusts his or her own follower and believes what she or he
says. Sometimes, these followers are just low ranking staff and their supervisors or managers
have no power to control them. In this way, conflicts start in organization. Transparency and
accountability are weak in such organizations and misuse of power and money is common. To
avoid it, the second-line leaders strongly recommend defining clear roles and responsibilities in
an organization.
Some leaders spend their precious time for micro-management getting involved in nittygritty things. They also should not give much time for unimportant matters of the organization.
44
Most CSO leaders do not want to spend their time to learn new things. Even if they learn new
things, they are reluctant to change and focus group discussion participants mentioned it
as “lessons unlearned”. Some organizations issue blacklist and disseminate the information
among CSOs community. Blacklisted people are those who leave their organizations and make
some mistakes.
Sometimes the staff does not make any mistake except leaving the organization. That kind of
action is unacceptable and participants criticized leaders from such organizations harshly.
Accordingly, role model is very important for organizational reform. To be a role model, a
leader’s IQ shouldn’t be lower than his or her followers but not necessary to be so high.
Conversely, his EQ-Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence and Physical Intelligence are
anticipated to be distinctively higher than others. Such leaders can influence over others with
their quality, but not with their power. They must also be willing to learn new things as well.
To be effective key players, leaders need to attend capacity building class, work-shop, seminars,
and conferences in and out of the country which ensure to learn and promote leadership quality.
Leaders are driving force whether his or her society develops or not.
In 21st century in which criteria of civilizations comes together as one at all, leaders must learn it
as well as multi-societies, multi-culture, and socio-economic development. In fact, self-change is
all change to build modern and liberal society culture. It is awareness that mutual respect,
rational understanding, and institution culture are main factors to survive civil society in short
and long term.